Proximity sensing portions found in mines have an explosion-proof housing that protects them from damage. In order to access the components of the proximity sensing portion to, for instance reprogram microprocessors inside the proximity sensing portion or change the magnetic field sizes produced by the proximity sensing portion with a potentiometer, the explosion-proof housing has to be opened. To open the explosion-proof housing is a tedious, manually intensive and time-consuming task that could easily require 30 or more bolts to be removed, and then subsequently put back in place when closing the explosion-proof housing. The present invention eliminates the need to have to open the explosion-proof housing to access the proximity sensing portion for common functions such as data collection, changing the magnetic field sizes and reprogramming the microcomputers in the proximity sensing portion; and further even allowing these operations to be performed remotely from the proximity sensing portion.